What would you consider to be cheap (price range-wise)? Cheap and historically accurate do not go hand in hand. It depends on the level of historical accuracy you want. If you want something that is historical-looking as opposed to 100% historically accurate, you might have some options. Give us an idea as to what you want to spend and we can better help you. If you really want to start collecting, I recommend investing in books before making a purchase. There are tons of books on the subject of arms and armor. Also, the articles on myArmoury have a lot of great info on period weapons. MyArmoury also has a reviews section that will help failiarize you with many mainstream sword makers and companies.

It will be challenging to do historically accurate (or functional) within that budget, but you can probably find things with reasonable historical resemblance. If you could stomach getting just one thing and could stretch your budget to $100, you could get something like this: Hanwei Practical Knightly Sword. You can read the description, but I'll repeat that these swords are made with the reenactor in mind, and from what I hear they are quite durable. If $100 was my budget this is probably what I would get. However, here are some options within your guidelines (I'm just going to use Kult of Athena as a reference because they seem to have the best prices and selection):

WOODEN SWORDS
any from this site will do, but the Viking one is a bit off as Damien pointed out

ARMOR & SHIELDS
I'd wait on these

Just some ideas based on the photos from the websites, not from personal experience with the merchandise. Please do explore all the features, articles and reviews that can be found on myArmoury. Ask questions on the forums, check out the maker and manufacturer links, etc. The information there and on other related sites will be richer than anything I can type here--you'll learn much more from sources other than online catalog descriptions!

Hey, thanks a lot! I forgot about this topic I really like the scimplicity and awesomeness of the Black Knight Dagger and Hanwei Practical Knightly Sword. Could these have been used be both Medieval and Renaissance knights, or just medieval knights?

Mid Knight,
The javelin by Arms & Armor would be an excellent piece to go for. Arms & Armor are considered to be one of the so-called "Big 3" sword makers in the US (the others are Albion and Angus Trim). Here is a link to the javelin description from the Arms & Armor website: http://www.armor.com/pole214.html I would say for the price, you could not do much better.

The "swordsman's dagger" looks fine, and while it is likely not an exact reproduction, it does have a historical look to it, much more so that the "Templar" dagger, which is completely fantasy. If I had to choose between the two, I would get the swordsman's dagger.

Going back to the question about the Black Knight Dagger and the Hanwei Practical Knightly Sword, they are more Medieval in appearance. Maybe Damien could comment on their fit for a Renaissance warrior.

Mid Knight wrote:Wooden sword (doesn't matter what time period, etc, I just want a decent one for playing around/practicing)

Probably the best wasters (historical English term for wooden practice swords) would be Purple Heart Armory. I have handled some of their products and they are very good. Another long standing supplier is Hollow Earth Swordworks. There are lots of other suppliers if you Google "wooden wasters".

Thanks a lot! Here are the items I want. I will by no means have much of it anytime soon, as I am broke and I am saving for Halo 3, but I will probably get a dagger this summer to bring to the Renaissance Festval (Even if it is more of a medieval dagger, lol) Anyway, here's the items I want:

I think you have made some nice choices. If you end up ordering the javelin, you might want to get it directly from the Arms & Armor website (www.armor.com). They are located in Minnesota and you would be buying locally! It might be fun to see if you could visit their workshop if they allow that sort of thing!

Sinve you are in MN, you might want to see if the Oakeshott Institute is doing anything in the area: http://www.oakeshott.org/

Yes, great swords are two handed swords, but not all two handed swords are great swords.

Thanks a lot! I didn't realize that was in MN, lol. I will check out Oakeshott too, and if I can go to the Armor wearhouse I will let you guys know what it was like I probably won't be getting anything besides a dagger right away, but maybe for my birthday (March 15) I will go to the armor wearhouse for that javelin

Dylan

EDIT: Also, are all 4 of those items I want specifically medieval, or are any of them Renaissance, or from before the Medieval period? (Maybe the Dark Ages...)

And that last sword, the Royal Crusader Sword, is pure fantasy. IMO the Hanwei Practical Knightly Sword is much better--much more expensive, but much, MUCH better. If you want to spend $30 on a sword, then stick with the Black Baron Sword http://www.kultofathena.com/product~ite ... +Sword.htm . It is not functional, which is probably fine for your intended purposes, but it looks more historical that the average sub-$50 sword.